


I will gladly bear the burden of my crown, if only you would be me queen

by Des98



Series: Chloe’s Lightbringer [2]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Deckerstar - Freeform, Dumb demons are dumb, F/M, Now a series, Stepsatan, The demons are jealous of trixie, because lucifer loves her most, but they mean well...ish.., it was meant to be fun crack but some hardcore angst jumped in there at the beginning oops, lucifer is a reluctant father figure to a bunch of dumbass demons, usually...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-17 14:22:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18967009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Des98/pseuds/Des98
Summary: This is now a series.  A prequel to the last oneshot, wherein Lucifer manages to send a message to Chloe in a rather.... unconventional way, and Dan and Ella are slightly traumatized.





	I will gladly bear the burden of my crown, if only you would be me queen

Chloe Decker wouldn’t say that she was doing okay, exactly, but she was surviving- with difficulty, certainly- but she had never been the type of person to let crushing grief keep her from doing what needed to be done.  When her father had died, she threw herself into the police academy. Every night she came home and broke down, allowed herself for just a moment to feel the weight of the world and its cruelty as it crushed her shaking, heaving shoulders while she sobbed with abandon.  But every morning, she picked up the shattered pieces of herself and taped them back together with pure willpower, just enough to keep them together during the day until she came home and could let them fall to the floor again.

It was no different with Lucifer.  Except now she had a child, so every night when she came home from work, she would first take care of Trixie if she had her, would put her to bed and listen to her questions.

“Mommy, where’s Lucifer?” The little girl asked, voice small.  Because she knew- knew that no matter how Lucifer may look to outsiders, and no matter how he might receive her freely-given affection with hapless confusion, his actions spoke louder.  She knew, like Chloe knew, that he loved her, would do anything for both of them, and that he would never just up and leave without a good reason.

And her mommy would look at her, unshed tears in her eyes that she tried to hide for Beatrice’s sake.  “He had to go away for a while, to keep us all safe.”

“Safe from the monsters?” Trixie would ask, because she knew much more than perhaps she should, and she had believed him wholeheartedly that he was the devil since he told her that first day.  Except he was a good devil, one who protected them from the  _ real  _ evil in the world (like when he had come to save her from Malcolm).

And Chloe would look at her again, having a feeling that her daughter knew more than she let on but not emotionally capable of delving into it at the moment.  “Yes, monkey,” she would sigh. “Safe from the monsters.”

Trixie never had the courage to ask when or if he would be back, afraid that her mommy would break down when she was trying so hard to hold herself together for Trixie, afraid that her mommy would give her an answer she didn’t want to hear.  Instead she looked at her mommy again, brown eyes blown wide and innocent and yet far too knowing at the same time, and her young voice only shook a little as she spoke with a conviction that she felt deep in her bones.

“He’ll come back, mommy,” she declared, one hand clutching a stuffed animal and the other on top of Chloe’s hand.  “He always finds a way back to us.”

“I hope so, monkey,” Chloe whispered back, wishing it with everything she had and everything she was.  “I hope so.”

And then she would kiss Trixie good night and turn on her nightlight and close her door quietly, waiting until she was sure that her daughter was asleep before she sobbed into her hands, her hair falling down around her face.  And she knew that if Lucifer was here he would brush it behind her ear, impossibly gently, and she started all over again, the memory of his lips on her own and aching softness in his eyes when he looked at her (as if it was her that hung the stars instead of him, and  _ shit,  _ she didn’t know what she did to deserve that) even as she held an axe against his chest and she knew with every fiber of her being that ‘devil’ was just a job description, and not the man he was.  Not the man he had  _ ever  _ been or would ever be.  And her tears wet her face and her hair and the couch, and her heart went to hell.

______

Another night of tears and lost sleep later and she was back to the part where she held herself together.  There were bags under her eyes and she looked like a wreck, and work was made harder by the fact that Dan and Ella couldn’t understand what she was going through. They knew that Lucifer had to leave LA for an indeterminate amount of time for something that just couldn’t be put off, and yeah, they knew it would be hard for Chloe, but they assumed that he could call or text her, that it would only be a matter of time before he was back to her.  Except that there was no cell reception in hell, and she could be long dead before he could ever again step foot on the earthly plane. And Dan and ella, as blissfully ignorant as she had been a year ago, just couldn’t understand that pain.

So she tightened her ponytail, shoved the loose strands of hair out of her face, put her ‘work face’ on, and trusted them to ignore the bags under her eyes and the blotchiness on her cheeks that even her foundation couldn’t seem to hide because she’d just been crying that much.  

“What have we got today?” She asked her friends.  It was just them on the scene today, as there was department-wide training going on and they were trying to spare as few officers as possible for cases in the interim so they could get it done faster.  It was honestly a relief to have just her and Dan and Ella, with no unis swarming the scene, eager to prove themselves and hoping to impress the detectives.

“Male vic, mid to late thirties, a John Doe,” Ella told her without looking up.  “Time of death sometime around six this morning. No witnesses, body was found by a sanitation worker.”  Chloe looked around at the dingy alley that surrounded them- that checked out. This wasn’t the sort of place people would spend their time in unless they had to.

“Well, at least it wasn’t  _ in  _ the dumpster,” Dan grunted, making a face at the corpse, which stunk in a manner that a new cadaver wouldn’t stink unless it had stunk in life first.  “That would have been hell to fish out.”

At the word  _ hell,  _ Chloe stiffened, reminded unpleasantly of her love, her fearless love, and where he was to protect them all.  She forced herself to put it aside as best she could; the time to fall apart was later.

Or it would have been later, except for the fact that the corpse started  _ moving.   _ They all jumped back a bit when it sat up, and Chloe was almost  _ hopeful  _ despite herself. If this was a rogue demon, then Lucifer would have to come back to get it, right? And she would see him, if only for a moment…

“You know, I resent that a little,” the corpse started talking, and Ella bit back a screech as Dan stumbled, falling over his own feet and onto his ass in his haste to move back from it.  “The sanitation crew in hell at least makes an  _ effort  _ to keep the place clean, so you shouldn’t be so rude about it.”

“Wha— my corpse is talking,” Ella gasped, crossing herself and mouthing a prayer in Spanish.

The corpse looked around, seemingly trying to figure out what she was talking about, before realization dawned in its cold, dead eyes.  “Who, me?” It asked. “No, not a corpse. Just… borrowing it for a little bit. I’m a demon; the name’s Brad. I’ve been sent here by my King, Lucifer Morningstar, to deliver a message.”

Despite the fact that Dan and Ella were currently having an existential crisis, Chloe’s eyes lit up: it didn’t matter how unconventional; Lucifer had found a way to speak to her, and she would cherish every second.  The demon/corpse turned to her.

“My queen,” it declared, getting up front the dirty alley floor and bowing low.  “Forgive me for being unable to offer the proper reverence, with circumstances being how they are.  But my king wishes you to know that he misses you dearly, and that the brightness of your eyes outshines all the stars he created (Brad happened to possess a differing opinion, but it would be unwise to disagree with his king, lovestruck or not).  He asked me to relay that he has found a timeline so that he might return to you, his one and only. He has been asserting his rule quite strongly down below, and believes that in six months to a year in the timeline of the earthly plain, he will be able to return to you and your spaw-  _ princess,”  _ he quickly corrected himself.  Lucifer himself might fondly call the child ‘spawn,’ but it was made very clear that all the demons were to treat her as both a princess and his heiress, and just as he daren’t disregard Lucifer’s word to treat this seemingly-ordinary human creature as their beloved and revered queen, they were to treat the grubby human offspring with the same respect and approbation.  Anyone who had dared voice opposition to the idea of human royalty and hell had found themselves treated to a display that for all that earth might have softened Lucifer’s edges, at his core he was still forged in fire and brimstone, a king not to be crossed or questioned by the demons who prowled his domain.

“He… he’s coming back to me?” Chloe could scarcely believe it, and for all she tried to remain professional, to remain regal (for apparently Lucifer had declared her his queen, and she felt both touched and awed by the gesture and woefully unprepared for all that it represented.  But whatever titles he might grant her, what mattered is that he was  _ hers,  _ and she was  _ his).   _

“Yes, majesty,” Brad confirmed, genuflecting.  “He said to tell you that he’d still have to go back once a month or so for a few days, but in no more than a year he should be back to living primarily on earth.  He also asked me to tell you that he’d put your name jointly on his estate and all his accounts; what’s his is yours. And uh… there was something else… he gave me so much to remember, I’ve had to rehearse bloody forever…”.  Dan and Ella continued to stare, open-mouthed, and Chloe worried that they’d been broken, but she’d deal with that a little later.

“That’s alright, take your time,” she told the demon kindly.

“Thanks very much, my Queen.  It really is too bad that angels are all generally sterile, disregarding that one-off with Amenadiel.  You’d make a wonderful mother to the antichrist. Although, I suppose your offspring will just have to do.  The king seems to think highly of her, at any rate. Whenever we’re misbehavin’, all we hear from his majesty is ‘Beatrice this, Beatrice that.  _ Beatrice  _ can follow basic directions.   _ Beatrice  _ wouldn’t try my patience this way.   _ Beatrice _ doesn’t take over a year to remember the contents of a basic message.”  There was a hint of bitterness and perhaps even jealousy in Brad’s tone, and Chloe couldn’t help but smile.

Dan sputtered and choked on air, Ella continued blinking owlishly, and Chloe just chuckled.  “Well, I’m sure you’ll remember eventually,” she prompted him gently, hoping to get him back on track so he could finish his message before Dan went completely catatonic.  As for Ella, she seemed to have recovered somewhat and was stepping towards the demon cautiously, her scientific curiosity seemingly beginning to outweigh her shock.

“Oh yes!” Brad suddenly shouted, raising the dead man’s arm and causing Dan to flinch back and Ella to suddenly halt her careful march towards the body.  “My king wanted me to tell you that every agonizing millennia of falling was worth it for just a second with you, and that being apart hurts worse than having his wings broken and his flesh burned away layer by layer as he fell after his brother pushed him from heaven, and then some other sappy romantic stuff that I can’t seem to recall for the sake of my non-existent soul.  Something about how you’re the most beautiful person on earth, how he doesn’t deserve you- which, if you don’t mind my saying so, my queen, is absolute rubbish, because my king deserves the world, but don’t tell him I disagreed with him or he’ll lecture me for another century- and  _ oh!   _ He wanted me to tell you to tell  _ Beatrice  _ that he said hi, and that he misses her, and that she is infinitely preferable company to us demons, cooties and all.”  His voice grumbled quite a bit on that last bit. “Honestly, you spend eons bringing him the best human spleens every father’s day, and then he goes and hangs some human offspring’s artwork on the arm of his throne…”.  They obviously weren’t meant to hear the last bit, but demons were not known for subtlety, and so they heard every word and Chloe bit back a laugh.

“I’m sure he cares about you too, in his own way,” she reassured the demon, who looked up at her through the unsettling dead eyes of their John Doe.

“You really think so, Majesty?” He asked.

“Of course,” Chloe said.  “After all, he did trust you all enough to look after things in hell on your own while he was up here, and then went back down to ensure you got back on track when you stopped behaving yourselves.”  This last part was said a bit sternly, and Brad hung his head in shame.

“Fair point, majesty,” he mumbled, embarrassed. “Now if my queen doesn’t mind dismissing me, I should really get back down there.  It’s probably been a couple months in hell time since I’ve come up, and his majesty should be gettin’ a bit anxious to see what you said…”

“Yes, of course,” Chloe agreed magnanimously.  “Just… tell him that I love him too… so much. And that I miss him more than he could possibly understand, and that I can’t wait to see him,” she said, trying to keep it short for the sake of Brad’s clearly bad memory.

“Yes, your majesty, I’ll tell him all a’ that, or something along those lines, at least.  Farewell, my queen. And uh, bye weird, silent humans…” he added quickly in Dan and Ella’s direction, before the corpse slunk to the ground again.

The three of them sat in silence for awhile, although Chloe was unable to keep the smile off of her face.  Finally, it was Dan who was the first to speak.

“So,” he said, looking at his ex-wife-turned-very-good-friend-and-coparent with a deceptively calm, sort-of-strangled tone of voice.  “Do you want to tell us  _ what the fuck  _ just happened. And when our daughter supposedly became the antichrist?!”

Chloe exhaled a strand of hair out of her face and prayed to Lucifer for strength (although why she’d ask him for patience in dealing with Dan when it wasn’t exactly his strong suit, she wasn’t exactly sure.  She supposed it was that any other celestial being that one might normally prayed to just so happened to be a massive, abusive dick). It was going to be a  _ long  _ day, and a long few months to follow. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to be upset about it, as she felt so much lighter than she had in weeks. Her devil was coming home to her, and for that- she’d bear anything.


End file.
